Read the White House letter denying release of Democratic memo

CNN

8:17 PM, Feb 9, 2018

8:25 PM, Feb 9, 2018

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President Donald Trump on Friday denied the request to release the Democratic memo that seeks to undercut Republican claims of FBI surveillance abuses and has sent it back to the House Intelligence Committee for changes.

The 10-page memo written by Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, landed on the President's desk Monday after the committee voted unanimously to make it public, and the FBI and Justice Department subsequently reviewed it this week.

In a letter to the committee, White House counsel Donald McGahn said, "Although the President is inclined to declassify the February 5th Memorandum, because the Memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages, he is unable to do so at this time."

Trump authorized last Friday the release of the highly controversial Nunes memo alleging that the FBI abused its surveillance tools. The FBI has said that memo, put together by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California, omits key information that could impact its veracity.